At a special meeting of the Clarion Area Authority Board, board members signed an agreement to sell the Clarion wastewater treatment plant and collection system to Pennsylvania American Water for $2.7 million. "The Authority's foresight, our acquisition and the subsequent improvements to the system will allow the five-year moratorium on connections to the system to be lifted in the next few years," said Chuck Johnston, business development manager for Pennsylvania American Water.

"Our expansion of the water utility system last year with completion of the $16 million water treatment plant and $9 million investment in extending service was one aspect of helping to accelerate economic development," Johnston said. "The water treatment plant was the largest infrastructure project in Clarion County since I-80 was built in the 1970s. The Authority's sale of the wastewater system and our planned improvements to the system will put into place the last missing piece that will complete the infrastructure system that will allow Clarion to accelerate economic development."

"We decided to sell the system to Pennsylvania American because we saw that they had all the resources in place to be able to hit the ground running," said Clarion Area Authority Board chairman Orv Lerch. "Pennsylvania American has experience running wastewater treatment systems both larger and smaller than ours. And they have the capabilities in-house to design, build and operate an improved system. The board believes Pennsylvania American Water's offer provides the best and fastest path to improve the wastewater system, which will almost immediately improve the economic development attractiveness of Clarion County."

The Clarion Area Authority serves 2,200 customers; Pennsylvania American Water serves nearly 4,000 customers in Clarion County and 600,000 customers statewide.